Damien Chazelle’s La La Land earned a record-tying 14 nominations, Amazon became the first streaming service to nab a Best Picture contender with Manchester by the Sea and seven of the 20 acting nominations went to people of color when

Actor Will Smith appeared on The Tonight Show Thursday to promote his new film, Suicide Squad, and also briefly discussed the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and his thoughts on race relations in America.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited a record 683 new members this year in an effort to increase the diversity of its membership and avoid a repeat of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy the organization has endured for the past two years.

Entertainment mogul Russell Simmons says the controversy created by the Oscars’s lack of black nominees, which spawned the “Oscars So White” social media tsunami, is the least concern for black entertainers, in what he calls a very “segregated” Hollywood.

LOS ANGELES — The Rev. Al Sharpton led a rally Sunday afternoon around the corner from Hollywood’s Dolby Theater to protest the lack of diversity among this year’s Academy Award nominees. Joined by members of his National Action Network (NAN)

Hollywood A-list directors Ava DuVernay and Ryan Coogler and other black entertainers like singer Janelle Monae and comedian Hannibal Burress, among others, will host a #JUSTICEFORFLINT event during the broadcast of the 88th Academy Awards.

Two-time Oscar-nominated actress Rooney Mara regrets playing the role of a Native American character in last year’s “Pan,” as she said it put her on the wrong side of Hollywood’s “whitewashing” debate.

A study released on Monday by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism finds that Hollywood’s problems with diversity are the result of the entire industry discriminating against women, minorities, and and the LGBT community.

April Reign, the creator of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, told industry outlet TheWrap on Friday a protest of this year’s Academy Awards will include “counter-programming” that will begin on Oscars night.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched an inquiry into the state of diverse programming on television, seeking to determine whether independent programmers face undue burdens in gaining carriage from traditional cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs).

Two-time Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson weighed in on the #OscarsSoWhite controversy this week, and suggested the industry’s diversity issues could be remedied by “killing off” the Academy’s many older, white members.

In lieu of this year’s so-called “White Oscars,” Def Jam co-founder and media mogul Russell Simmons has announced he will host his own movie awards ceremony, which is set to debut just days before the 88th Academy Awards.

Hollywood titan Steven Spielberg became the latest industry figure to weigh in on the #OscarsSoWhite controversy on Thursday, saying in an interview that he does not believe there is “inherent or dormant racism” in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and that he is “not 100 percent” supportive of the Academy’s dramatic rule changes to increase diversity within the organization.

Three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep waded into the debate over the lack of diversity in Hollywood during the opening press conference at the Berlin Film Festival, explaining away the festival’s all-white jury panel by telling reporters: “We’re all Africans really.”

This year’s Oscar broadcast could be a lot less boring as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday that acceptance speeches can no longer contain the endless lists of “thank yous” that have become a staple at the awards ceremony.

At the annual Oscars nominee luncheon on Monday, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs highlighted the organization’s new rule changes as a positive step to combat the diversity controversy surrounding this year’s Academy Awards. Speaking of the new rules aimed at purging the voting rights of older, white Academy members to increase diversity, Isaacs said that she had asked “the elephant in the room” to “leave.”

In an interview at the Academy Awards nominee luncheon in Beverly Hills on Monday, Sylvester Stallone said he had considered joining in the boycott of this year’s Oscars to protest its lack of diversity, but then changed his mind when he consulted the director of the film responsible for getting him there.

Demonstrators from Project Islamic Hope gathered outside the annual Academy Awards nominee luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday to protest the lack of diversity among this year’s acting nominees.

While most nominees will walk away from the upcoming Academy Awards without with an Oscar, the company in charge of putting together this year’s luxurious gift bags will ensure nobody walks away empty-handed.